The University of Pennsylvania’s Mask & Wig club is an all-male comedy troupe with a rich history that was founded in 1889. The troupe features music, dancing and comedy and travels around the country to perform. Old Mask & Wig programs are sought after collectibles and feature imaginative covers:

The 1942 Mask & Wig Program

The 1938-1939 Program

The covers illustration shows Manhattan at the center with Queens identified as “Vast Unexplored Territories” and Brooklyn as “Who Cares?” and was done by Bo Brown. Brown was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and his works appeared in The Saturday Evening Post and The New Yorker.

We recently came cross a vintage souvenir of Stanford University, Photo Gravures in excellent condition. Original red paper wraps with tie string still tight. Produced by the Albertype Company, Brooklyn and copyright 1900 by H.W. Simkins, Bookseller and Stationer, Palo Alto.

20 pages of turn of the century images including the faternity houses, the museum, the north facade, inner quadrangle and more. A fantastic collectible, would make a great gift for the Stanford alumni.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Act into law in 1958, allowing Alaska to become the 49th state on January 3, 1959. The Army Navy Football Program of 1958 celebrates this historic act.

The creative cover shows a view of Alaska from space with the top half covered in ice and the bottom half as earth. A totem pole is featured and shows a composite of an Army-Navy player, a Cadet, a Midshipman at the top.

We have a nice selection of Army-Navy programs on our website including the historic 1958 program:

The English plate maker Wedgwood issued a set of commemorative plates for Dartmouth College when it celebrated its bicentennial in 1969. The plates were originally sold at Campion’s, a long-time retailer in Hanover, New Hampshire. Ad ad for the plates is below, which is in the Dartmouth v. Princeton Football Program from 1970.

The twelve plates in the series were of the following scenes:

The Old Row

Observatory Hill

Ledyard Bridge

The College Church

Webster Hall

Parkhurst Hall

President’s House

Dick’s House

Tuck School

Baker Library Tower

Carpenter and Baker

D.O.C. House

The plates sold for $80 for the dozen or $6.95 each. The set also offered matching bread and butter plates, cups and saucers and ash trays. The piece-de-resistance of the set was the Bicentennial Platter seen in the top of the ad, which was 17 inches wide and sold for $29.50.

We have a nice selection of Dartmouth memorabilia, football program and Wedgwood on our website:

Know a recent student accepted into or graduating from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn)? How about a game of Pennopoly, a game patterned after Monopoly but based on the famous Philadelphia school founded by Benjamin Franklin?